Simple questions are the best form of questions to ask in chief or cross. There are exceptions, but they're rare.Given that, it's funny that English and Australian courtrooms often feature long repetitious stanzas of mixed positives and negatives.ExamplesADVOCATE: You went to the storeroom, didn't you?WITNESS: Yes.ADVOCATE: You didn't go anywhere else, did you?WITNESS: No.Listening to …
Tag: USA
Implied waiver of the right to silence
Interesting times over in the land of the free and home of the brave, as the US Supreme Court has held in a 5-4 decision that the right to silence must be unambiguously (and probably expressly) asserted.The full text of Berghuis v Thompkins 560 US (including the dissenting judgment) can be found here.In the US, …
Double jeopardy
Double jeopardy is often used to refer to an accused being presented for trial or sentence before different courts regarding the same matter. It's also used to describe the situation where an accused is punished twice for the commission of the same act. Black J described the concept in this context in Green v United …
DNA evidence and the prosecutor’s fallacy
Edit: Although not limited to the US, some of the most glaring applications of the prosecutor's fallacy have occurred there. It's a problem that continues, with the US Supreme Court having just had to decide another case (McDaniel v Brown [2010] USSC No 08-559) where an expert on behalf of the State used the traditional …
DNA evidence and the prosecutor's fallacy
Edit: Although not limited to the US, some of the most glaring applications of the prosecutor's fallacy have occurred there. It's a problem that continues, with the US Supreme Court having just had to decide another case (McDaniel v Brown [2010] USSC No 08-559) where an expert on behalf of the State used the traditional …